| Author |
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| Pablo |
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 9:48 pm Post subject: 1 |
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| Just a guess, 2 Horum Joneses |
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| mathgrant |
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 9:19 pm Post subject: 0 |
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| Who's Horah Jones? |
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| extropalopakettle |
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 12:34 am Post subject: -1 |
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| Quote: |
| Multi-Grammy-award-winning recording artist Norah Jones is the daughter of famed sitarist Ravi Shankar. |
I count at least seven data:
Norah Jones is a recording artist.
Norah Jones won a Grammy award.
Norah Jones won at least one other Grammy award.
Norah Jones is female.
Horah Jones is the daughter of Ravi Shankar.
Ravi Shankar is a sitarist.
Ravi Shankar is famous. |
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| The Cruciverbalist |
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 12:01 am Post subject: -2 |
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If I'm interpreting the meaning correctly, each of following could be considered a datum:
Multi-Grammy-award-winning recording artist Norah Jones is the daughter of famed sitarist Ravi Shankar.
The typewriter was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes.
The address of fictional comic book character Peter Parker (the secret identity of Spiderman) does in fact exist, and by astounding coincidence, is home to a Parker family.
The secant is the trigonometric ratio between the hypotenuse of a right triangle and an adjacent side.
During the so-called "Cola Wars," Ray Charles did advertisements for both Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola. |
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| extropalopakettle |
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 11:50 pm Post subject: -3 |
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| I can't even imagine when it was ever used. I can't imagine what constitutes a "datum" (and I was a Comp. Sci. major). |
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| casinopete |
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 9:09 pm Post subject: -4 |
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I would call "datum" archaic. It's never used anymore.
I think "data" has changed into a mass noun, just like "salt." There is no real singular. You describe single bits using another noun, like "grain of salt" or "piece of data." |
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| extropalopakettle |
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 9:04 pm Post subject: -5 |
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| So how do you count data? (as in answering "how many data do you have?") |
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| the.cynic |
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 4:52 pm Post subject: -6 |
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Tecnically, data were is correct.
In the U. S. we tend to use the singular for groupings where as in Europe they tend to use the plural. (In my observation.) i.e. We would say Fluster & Blunt is a fine company. They may say Fluster & Blunt are a fine company .
I think it's a point of view thing.
I once worked for a large corp. and the question was posited as to who or what we were talking about when we refered to The Company. I didn't have a good answer -- except that I wasn't part of Upper Management.
(Proff reading doesn't even worj.)
[This message has been edited by the.cynic (edited 06-09-2003 12:54 PM).] |
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| Courk |
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 3:02 am Post subject: -7 |
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| Quote: |
| i guess i didn't [___] as well on the writing section as i thought :-/ |
Especially when you just skip words like that. |
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| extropalopakettle |
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 1:02 am Post subject: -8 |
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| BTW, the difference between "data" and words like "salt" is that "salt" is a mass noun - it doesn't have a singular form (except when used in a different sense, meaning a kind of salt - as in "a metal combined with chlorine produces a salt, different metals producing different salts"). |
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| extropalopakettle |
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 12:52 am Post subject: -9 |
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People rarely use the word "datum" though - I think because it isn't clear exactly what constitutes a single datum.
Also, which is correct: 1) How much data do you have? 2) How many data do you have?
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| extropalopakettle |
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| Pablo |
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 12:14 am Post subject: -11 |
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If you ever studied Latin (which was still offered when I was in school), you'd know that nouns were either masculine (ending in 'us'), feminine (ending in 'a'), or neuter (ending in 'um'). Plurals were made by ending in ae, i, or a, respectively.
Examples: vertabra, vertabrae octopus, octopi datum, data
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| SaberKitty |
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 12:03 am Post subject: -12 |
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ok, this saturday i took the SAT II's. the second test i took was math (2c) and at the the beginnign of the test, they have a few survey quetions. It was explaining what it would be used for and it said "all the data were..." and it totally freaked me out. i know that data is the plural for datum and stuff, but don't you still use the word like it's singular? like salt- "all the salt was..."
am i wrong- was the test correct? but if it is... i guess i didn't as well on the writing section as i thought :-/
-SK |
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